Improvement in defecating and clarifying cane-juice



R. A. STEWART.

Defecating and Clarifying Saccharine vLiquids. No. 22,590. Patented Jan.11, I859.

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NiTnn STATES PATENT @rrrcn.

RICHARD A. STEWVART, OF ST. BERNARD PARISH, LOUISIANA.

IMPROVEMENT IN DEFECATING AND CLARlFYING CANE-JUICE.

Specificationforming part of Letters Patent No. 5225590, dated January11, 1839.

T0 at whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, RICHARD A. STEWART, of the parish of St. Bernard andState of Louisiana, have invented a new and useful improvement in thedefecation and clarification of cane-juice, sirup, molasses, andsaccharine matter generally, when in a liquid. or semiliqnid state, ofwhich the following is a speciiication.

My invention or improvement consists in passing or disseminating in anyconvenient manner throughout the saccharine matter sulphurous acid orgas produced by a slow con1- bustion, in a nearly closed retort, ofsulphur or common roll brimstone. There are obviously various modes ofproducing this gas and of disseminating it through thesaceharine liquid,all of which are useful and will involve the principle or character ofmy invention, and I leave to all the adoption of such of the obviousmodes of effecting the object as may be preferred; but the means I haveassayed and found to produce the most satisfactory results, defecatingand clarifying the saccharine liquid as perfectly and more economicallythan I have ever before seen it in the manufacture of sugar, is asfollows: I use a horizontal air-tight cylindrical retort, rsay twelvefeet long and three feet diameter-made of iron, references being had tothe drawing hereto annexed, and making a part hereof. This cylinder maybe lined partially or wholly with any substance upon which the burningsulphur will not act. At one end of this retort there is an opening toadmit the sulphur, having a door or stopper and a small perforation,asay one inch diameter-capable of adjustment for the slow admission ofair. At the other end there is an opening-say four inchesdiameter-communicating with a pipe, I, of similar diameter, the otherextremity of the pipe P communicating with an air-tight vessel of water,XV, and its end may dip downward into the water a short distance; and,if thought desirable, there may be another similar vessel of waterconnected with the first by a pipe of similar diameter opening into eachabove the water-line. Thescwater-vesselsmay bethesize of a commonbarrel. From the water-vessels there is a pipe, P about four inchesdiameter, extending to the upper end of a vertical air-tight cylinder,V,which I term the vacuum-cylinder, about ten feet high by three feetdiameter, and this vacuum-cylinder communicating at its lower end withthe top of the steam-boilers B by a pipe, P say two inches diameter-andwith the receiver of the cane-juice by another pipe, P, at its upperend. The tubes in the bottom of said receiver have small perforations ontheir upper sides,

and such perforations being numerous to dis tribute the discharge fromthe pipe uniformly throughout the juice. The pipe from the top of thevacuum-cylinder, leading to the perforated tubes in the bottom of thejuice-receiver, should rise above the receiver and lead downward.

The operation is as follows, viz: The brin1- stone pulverized I spreadfrom end to end along the bottom of the retort a, and ignite it at theend nearest the pipe P. The admission of air being very slow, sulphurousgas or acid is constantly produced, with, perhaps, a small quantity ofsulphuric acid, all of which remains in the retort until allowed to passforward. lVhen it is allowed to pass forward to the vacuum-cylinder, itpasses first through the water-vessel \V, when any sulphuric acid whichmay have been formed in the retort will be principally absorbed. Thejuice-receiver is filled with cane-juice. The stop-cocks c and c areopened, whereby the steam passes into the vacuum-cylinder, expelling theair there from. The cocks c and c are then closed, and the condensationof the steam in the vacuumcylinder produces a partial vacuum therein.The stop-cock c is then opened, and the sulphurous gas passes forward tofill the vacuum-cylinder. The stop-cock c is then closed and c and c areopened, when the steam rushes into the vacuum-cylinder, forces thesulphur ous gas therein through the pipe P and perforated pipesthroughout the cane-j nice in the receiver. I prefer to pass thesulphurousgas through the cane-juice; but it may be beneficiallyintroduced in more advanced stages of the process of making sugar. Isometimes pass two or three successive charges of the gas through thesaccharine liquid, which is accomplished in a few minutes and at anexpense of but few cents to the hogshead of sugar.

To render the vacuum more perfect, jets of cold water may be used in thevacuumchamher.

My improvement entirely dispenses with the necessity of using eitherbone-black or bisulwhat I claim as new in the defecation and phate oflime in the process of clarifying and clarification of cane-juice andother liquid or defecating. semi-liquid forms of saccharine matter, is

The apparatus I have described is suffieient Disseminating throughoutthe same sulphurfor the largest sugar-house. ous gas or sulphurous-acidgas, for the pur I Having fully madeknown the nature of my poses hereinset forth. improvement and the manner in which I have reduced the sameto practice, I do not claim, W'itnesses: broadly, the use of sulphurousgas or sulphur- C. II. DAVIS, ous-aeid gas in the manufacture of sugar;but I OHS. G. ALLEN,

RICHARD A. STEWART.

